Flying into Bangkok, Thailand, we've all the heard the stories... what I was about to experience was a heady mix of Wats (yes, more temples), lots of farangs (thai word for westerners), add a dash of sex tourism, a few tacky rip offs, plenty of buckets and some seafood for good measure. Allow plenty of relaxing on beautiful beaches. Then finally top with a five night party, to complete!

The architecture of Bangkok airport was pretty impressive as the thai taxi driver took me the half hour journey into the city. It took me a day or two to realise that very often, Bangkok taxi drivers do not know or sometimes even understand where you tell them to go (especially on meters). I was still pretty tired from the 12 hour bus to delhi, flight to mumbai, half a nights sleep, as well as the most recent flight. So after his fourth attempt at asking another taxi driver, he finally delivered me to Hotel Siam 1, not far from Koh San Road. Banglamphu was originally the centre of Bangkok but is now more reknowned for the area for farangs to stay and the locals attempt to sell them anything they'd ever need! But it was fairly easy to avoid after my experiments in India. A day and a half later of sleeping, eating, researching and deciding on a general plan and booking flights, I decided to explore Bangkok. So first off, sightseeing with the Wats. Wat Phra Kaew is based inside the Grand Palace, totally 94 hectares. The decoration set it apart from temples in India as you'll see from photographs. The central feature was the Emerald Buddha. His clothes are changed for each of the 'seasons' in Thailand - hot, cool and rainy! Lak Meuang is the city pillar and Wat Pho features a gigantic and the worlds largest, reclining gold buddha. Wat Arun is a 82m high tower built next to the river, offering great views across the city. I took a long boat back to Banglamphu.

Having been interested in trying meditation most of adult life, I had a look at the International Buddhist Meditation Centre at Wat Maharat. The only problem was; it having been fully explained to me by a friendly Thai lady - I really didn't fancy it after learning I'd have a personal lesson, as no one else was around for lessons and I'd have to sit in the lotus position for 3 hours! We later joked that thinking about clearing your mind (and indeed not thinking) doesn't actually sound that great - myth well and truely disposed in my mind. That evening I took a trip to Patpong, in search of some nightlife. Unfortunately the club which the guidebook had suggested was closed, so I wandered around the district of go-go bars. It was the first time I'd seen anything like this - beautiful thai girls in bikinis dancing on bar tops, with mostly middle-age farang guys gawping at them. I had a drink in one and was persuaded into a 'ping pong show' afterwards, by a man telling me it was '100 baht' for a beer and was again assured this was the price inside. As this is a family show, you'll just have to imagine what that involves, but most of the girls were naked. Having refused sex with four prostitutes in a row, I was quickly presented with a bill; 'Beer 300 baht, Looking 1000 baht'. I'd read that these places are run like the mafia, but now two prostitutes were sitting next to me and the larger bouncer one, wouldn't let me stand! So I ended up paying 300 baht and promptly departed. Still, not a bad price for a crazy experience like that.

The next day I visited Chinatown, the crazy busy Sampong Lane, featuing lots of Trok Itsaranuphap- giant fried pork skins, Talat Leng-Buai-La fish and shellfish market and Wat Mangkon Kamalawat (featuring loads of incense sticks). Further down the road was Wat Traimit - a 3m tall solid gold Buddha. Then took a taxi to Siam Square and the huge network of shopping centres. Managed to make a few essential purchases and had my hair cut. Following lack of luck the previous evening, I decided to take a taxi to see Grandmaster Flash at the 808 on RCA. Royal City Avenue is a pretty famous road in Bangkok so I was annoyed when the taxi driver dropped me off in the opposite side of the city, at the Royal City Hotel. But half an hour later and the hip-hop was kicking. Now as some of you will know I'm not exactly the greatest fan of this sort of music, but he ended up playing a greatest hits set of hiphop and rnb. Slightly disappointing to see the 'Grandmaster' mix only on a lap top with a few scratches from the decks now and again. He didn't play a record once, but the crowd went nuts! It all ended by 2am. On the final evening I went to see Terminator Salvation and a new pixar film called Up.

Back to the airport and a delayed flight to Phuket (pronounced in the not so great sound of Poo-ket). A short taxi ride to Patong with three Chinese girls and we arrived at Touch Villa, where I stayed for the next few days. I had been longing for the beachlife for weeks, so it was a great relief to reach the sea after what seemed so long! So I spent the first two days on the beach and mostly watching Wimbledon during the evenings. And eating Pad Thai and bbq'd seafood. I later learnt that all these seaside towns offer fabulous seafood. You can choose your king prawn, crab, lobster or other fish and agree a price by weight, before entering the restaurant. Great deals! But the feature you can't get away from in Patong is the sex tourism. Every evening on Th Bangla, the main strip to the beach, literally hundreds of young thai girls offer themselves to the nearest Farang. Some work the street, others are in bars or nightclubs. But being a single white english boy it was difficult to avoid girls attempting to physically drag me into their bar. Of course the only thing they're looking for is money. So you buy them drinks at inflated prices or let them beat you at connect four or some other game. I would like to confirm, that I never even got that far, but it was interesting watching this go on. The real difference to any other 'red light district' I'd seen before, whether Kings Cross in London or Sydney or Amsterdam, is that it wasn't nearly as seedy. And almost seemed normal! It would be common to sit in a restaurant and watch a middle aged farong man, having dinner with a young thai girl. Lots of single westerners come here for their sexual kicks and turn one night with a prostitute into a whole holiday. But at the end of the day, they're paying for it and to me that seems wrong.

In Base Sydney, I had briefly met a girl called Christin from Germany. After we discovered we were going to be in Thailand at a similar time, we exchanged contact details. So after a few facebook conversations, Christin appeared at the hotel and we ended up spending most of the next fortnight together. We decided to hire or motorbike the next day, to see some of Phuket's other beaches. I drove with Christin on the back. We visited Kata beach and then went up to the viewpoint. Then spent a few hours sunbathing. It was on the journey to the next beach that I remember beginning to feel more confident, harking back to childhood summers of riding across fields on a 50cc yamaha. And you can almost guess what happened next, I went too fast round a bend. I slowed down but not quickly enough to prevent me going over the handle bars and Christin landing on top of me! Luckily Christin wasn't badly hurt at all, but I had one big cut on my chin, a large scrape next to my right eye, aswell as cuts to elbows, hands and knees. Oh dear, yet another traveling accident had occured - but it could have been a whole lot worse! We should probably have turned back, but in the spirit of adventure and not to ruin the rest of our day, we decided to carry on to Nat Han beach. This was by far the nicest beach on Phuket so far - another error in Lonely Planet. As you can imagine, I wasn't in the best of moods and struggled to reach the steps to the viewpoint, with people staring at my dirty, blood stained shirt and cuts on my face! The slow journey back to Patong was full of caution but we made it. Sleeping wasn't easy that night, but I had picked up some antibiotic cream so everything would turn out well in the end.

Next day we took a minibus to Phuket town and then a boat to Phi Phi Don, arriving at Ao Ton Sai, the southern beach. Again, in a not so paradise fashion, this is pronounced. Pee-pee. As usual we hadn't booked anywhere and walked through the travel agents selling their rooms on commission. We eventually came across the Up Hill Cottage, offering a balcony view across the town. The northern beach of Ao Lo Dalai was by far the prettiest and we spent the next afternoon sunbathing and swimming. The salty sea water was useful for cleaning my cuts. The evenings entertainment mostly consisted of either watching Wimbledon, or guys twirling fire sticks and ropes to loud music, at the three beach bars. This was entertaining for a while, but once you've seen all the games once, interest begins to wane. One of these evenings was billed as the 'Half Moon Party' but wasn't full by any means. It was also my first taste of 'buckets' consisting of the equivalent of a small bottle of spirit mixed with a soft drink. Our free bucket was full of thai whisky and tasted disgusting! I had decided to be clever that evening with my Ipod and Christin's lap top so spent most of the day rectifying the situation, in an internet cafe. The following day we took a long boat tour around nearby islands and Phi Phi Leh. It was also my first time snorkelling and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We stopped at monkey beach, where of course most people feed the monkeys bananas, in complete ignorance of what they're actually doing. We saw some stalagmites outside small caves and then arrived at the star attraction, Maya Bay. This is where 'The Beach' with Leo DiCaprio was mostly filmed. And it was beautiful. The way in which the rocky outcrops almost circle the entire bay, together with the turquoise blue waters and fine sand, is truely stunning. I could have stayed far longer there, than just one hour. But it was back on the boat to Bamboo Island, where we can relaxed on an amazing, almost desolate beach. It really is the real deal when there are no hawkers, or locals trying to sell you stuff. The boat continued on to circle back around Phi Phi Don for more snorkelling and finally, sunset. Which I thought was quite strange because by this time, everyone was exhausted from the swimming and sun that it was earily quiet as the sun disappeared behind the clouds.

It was around this time that Glastonbury Festival was happening in sunset. It was great to keep in touch with a few people throughout their time there. With Wimbledon and the english weather so warm, it made me slightly homesick. I relish this time of the year in England as the summer always seems so exciting. Christin wanted to get on with seeing more of Thailand so she went to Krabi for rock climbing, whilst I spent another day on the beach. The following day I took the boat to Railay - billed as Thailand's best beach in Lonely Planet. There is no harbour at Railay so you literally have to climb out of the boat, and wade to shore carrying your bags. The boat arrives at the eastern beach, which is by far the grubbier of the two. I managed to find an ok room and spent the next two days watching more Wimbledon and lazing on the glorious western beach, Hat Rai Leh West. This time, not only rocks on the horizon, surrounding the sea, but also rocks behind you, in spectacular fashion. Just a few ladies pushing their massages. You can understand why people come here to rock climb. I watched the epic Wimbledon final in a restaurant and was disappointed for Roddick. But amazed at Federer - the new major record holder.

The next day I travelled across southern Thailand to the eastern island of Koh Pha-Ngan, to reach the infamous Full Moon Party. This involved a long boat, a truck, two buses, a ferry and finally another truck to Hat Rin. Christin and I had arranged to stay at the same hotel as Dave and his friend John. The hotel was actually called something different to the one I booked, but I eventually caught up with Christin we we stayed in our semi-bungalow. It was four days before the actual Full Moon Party but four or five soundsystems were already blasting out their tunes in force. The first night we spent on the beach, checking out the sound systems but by far the best music was at Sunrise Bar. We drank Vodka Red Bull buckets and danced till around 3am. I spent the next afternoon at the baking hot beach before finding a lower key party on the beach. It was 'Buddha day' in Thailand which was traditionally celebrated by no alcohol. Today was the actual full moon but no real party to speak of. Christin and I visited Mushroom Mountain and enjoyed gazing down over the beach below. She arrived back at the room before me to discover we had left the room door ajar, opened with the key inside! Thank goodness noone else noticed! It certainly made me less concerned with the hyped-theft issue at full moon. The following afternoon the four of us went back to Mushroom mountain to sample some shakes. The rest of the evening is a real blur but I'm told highly entertaining at the time! The final scab on my face disappeared just in time for the full moon party, which came and went really quickly. The beach was of course, jammed full with people. Half of people with body painting, some dancing, some sitting, some lying asleep. Buckets at every turn! Probably around 10 soundsystems in all and a real selection of dance music - something for most peoples' taste. Graham Gold was the only DJ I recognised. It was all about having fun, the music isn't serious at all but still entertaining enough. I had intended only to go back to our room for a shower, but the previous nights had caught up with me and I just about remember the sun rising as I was falling asleep.

As you can imagine, not much happened the following day and afterwards we all departed and went our seperate ways. Christin to Bangkok, Dave and briefly John to Railay and Phi Phi and for me, a short boat trip to Koh Samui where I've been staying at Lamai Beach, sorting out plans for the next leg and updating this blog entry! Its been raining here most of today. Just been to have my last Pad Thai for 50 baht (about 90 pence). The basic Thai foods really are the best from street vendors and I wish I'd known this earlier in this trip. I fly to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning and will spend a week travelling down to Singapore, before flying to a place called Yogjakarta in Java, Indonesia, before making my way through temples and at least one active volcano, then meeting Dave in Bali.

Overall, I've really enjoyed my time in Thailand. The beaches are definitely the best overall packages as the most beautiful beaches I've ever had the pleasure to visit, and will always associate them with a sort of 'paradise'. The touristy parts can be annoying if you let them, but can almost be avoided altogether by staying in more remote places. It was great to relax after a really hectic time in India, but having made new friends and partied hard, I'm ready to tackle hardcore traveling once again in Malaysia and Indonesia. Christin took the best photos but they don't seemed to have copied to my memory stick so you'll have to wait a while for those. Now back in late August for Ann's wedding and RSPrB. Look forward to seeing you all then. xxxx